What did Eve say? A study of Genesis 4.1b

The meaning of the verb קנה‎ in Gen. 4.1 is vigorously debated. While a majority of scholars acknowledge that this verb has an economic-legal meaning ‘to acquire, purchase, come to possess or take into possession’, they have difficulty in accepting this meaning for Gen. 4.1. The construction of קניתי את־יהוה‎ in Eve’s reported speech creates further uncertainties. The proposal of the present author is to focus on the clausal constructions in which the verb קנה‎ is used in the Hebrew Bible. Based on this linguistic analysis and on a study of the textual context of the verse, the author argues that Eve does not speak about creating or begetting a child, but about her acquiring a man from YHWH.